PURCHASE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville University women's lacrosse team erased a five-goal deficit on Wednesday night but were unable to ultimately to overcome Bard College, falling to the Raptors 13-9. The loss drops the Valiants to 2-6 on the season.

A back-and-forth opening six and a half minutes saw Manhattanville in front 3-2. Sydney Natale (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) scored twice for the Valiants over the opening five minutes, with her second goal coming from Pietra Cabral (Mineola, N.Y./Mineola) following a Bard green card. The Raptors got their two first tallies from Gwendolyn Jamison before Ashley Glass (Mahopac, N.Y./Lakeland) gave the home side their third lead of the early going with her ninth of the year with 8:23 left in the quarter.

It would take close to four minutes for another goal, but Emerson Embrey's shorthanded goal with 4:45 left in the first marked a momentum shift. It was the first of six unanswered Bard goals with a run that carried through a majority of the second quarter. The Raptors looked to be carrying a five-goal advantage into the half, but Natale completed a first half hat trick with five seconds left to make the score 8-4 in favor of Bard at the intermission.

Manhattanville went on a run of their own to kick off the third, scoring the first four goals of the half to tie the game up at 8-8. Katherine Stahl (Middletown, R.I./Middletown) fired the first blow 4:21 into the period before Cabral got into the goal column three minutes later after a Bard yellow card gave Manhattanville the numbers advantage. Cabral went on to assist Stahl's second of the night with 5:55 left on the clock before Glass completed the comeback on a free position goal to bring Manhattanville all the way back to even with 5:10 left in the quarter.

Despite the effort to fight back into the contest, Manhattanville was ultimately outdone by the Raptors. Bard retook the lead with two goals before the end of the third before outscoring the Valiants 3-1 in the fourth. Stahl accounted for Manhattanville's lone goal of the fourth for her first hat trick of the season off Kaci Pierce's (Niantic, Conn./East Lyme) assist.

Megan McDonald (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) made ten saves in the Valiant goal. The freshman now holds a .418 save percentage on the year.

Pierce led all players with eight draw controls, adding two ground balls and a caused turnover. Cabral's four grounders led the Valiants, while Stahl, Mariah Stephens (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo) and Mia Camey (Hampton Bays, N.Y./Hampton Bays) each had three. Stephens was Manhattanville's leading defensive presence, forcing three Raptor turnovers.

Up Next
It's all conference play the rest of the way as the Valiants turn attention to their six final games in Skyline action. Manhattanville hits the road on Saturday, taking on Mount Saint Vincent at 3 p.m.

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